Chapter Text
This is fine, Valerie tells herself as she races through the green-dark atmosphere. Everything is definitely one hundred percent totally fine.
[Everything is not fine, but] she isn't going to think about that because that means thinking about the ghost who has been chasing her through the Infinite Realms for the past several minutes.
She doesn't even know what this ghost wants. He took offense to something that he thinks she did when she flew past him, or maybe he just decided to take offense to the sight of her face. That tends to happen sometimes when ghosts figure out that you associate with the Phantom of Amity Park.
Ah, yes, the benefits of being mentored by, and maybe being friends with, said Phantom of Amity Park, Valerie thinks. (There are no perks to being known by the label 'attack on sight' by over half of the Infinite Realms.) Apparently, Phantom has become rather well-known among ghosts over years of defending his Haunt (and, in some cases, the other ghosts). She would have thought they would have stopped fighting him by now. It couldn't be that easy, though. Among ghosts, friendly sparring is considered to be a sign of respect. She would be fine with that, if she hadn't already been late home. In this case, Valerie is sure that the ghost doesn't just want to spar. Phantom has managed to make himself countless enemies, and she is certain that this ghost has recognized that she knows him and has decided to make that fact her problem.
Valerie had no idea this entire mission would be so difficult. She would have just brought Phantom with her, because few ghosts would actually try to pick any proper fights with him right now, but no. She just had to say she could do this on her own, for some reason. (She wanted to do something nice for Phantom, as an apology for hunting him on sight for all those years. She hadn't been fair to him. No gift or help can ever truly make up for all that, but she can try, at least.)
She has no idea how any ghost living this far out of the way would know her on sight, but news does tend to travel fast in the Realms. Ghosts, as she is finding out, are some of the biggest gossips ever. Somehow, this is simultaneously the most logical and the most ridiculous thing that she has learned since becoming Spectre and being welcomed properly among the denizens of the Infinite Realms.
Valerie glances back out of habit. Instantly, cold panic races through her, adrenaline humming through her veins at the sight.
The ghost, now close enough that he could grab Valerie if she makes one wrong move, grins back at her with sharp teeth and wild eyes. His entire face is stained green with ectoplasm the same shade of green as his eyes.
Valerie doesn't want to know why. (She really, really doesn't want to know why.)
He speeds up. Terror choking her, Valerie pushes as hard as she can, until her ribs start to feel like they're going to explode. She can't breathe at all. Going this fast hurts, but she can't slow down. If she slows down and the ghost catches her... She doesn't want to know what will happen then.
In the distance, the tall spires of a stone tower split the atmosphere of the Infinite Realms. The sky is tinted purple-green around the edges here, shading the charcoal-dark stones of the tower vaguely plum in the light.
Time grows still and soupy for several moments as she darts closer. This doesn't stop her panic. In fact, if anything, this makes her panic worse.
Valerie approaches the tower, pushing through the last of the unsettling time distortion. As she breaks through, time starts running properly again. She shivers in discomfort. The bronze and silver gears arranged around the outside turn constantly at some unknown signal, despite not having any function that Valerie can see. Their speed seems unchanging.
Valerie pushes herself to the limit, chest burning, core aching. She doesn't think that she has ever flown so fast in her life. She lunges forward, darting between two of the tallest spires, then drops abruptly toward the ground of the island that the tower is floating on. She ducks under one of the spinning gears and through the closest of the many entrances on the side. Circling above the island, the ghost hisses in frustration, unable (or unwilling) to follow her.
She stays there for what feels like forever. This gives her mind time to wander. Unbidden, her thoughts turn to the last time she had entered the Infinite Realms and how Plasmius had confronted her. In her mind, the sense-memory plays, over and over again, of how his face had twisted when he realized that she wouldn't go with him after what he had done.
"Fine, then," he had snapped, red eyes flashing dangerous in the half-light. "Have it your way, but this will become a pain you'll never forget. I'll always be with you."
Valerie shudders at the thought. She has enough pain from those several days that she spent trapped. Her body still aches all over, sometimes, like the ghost of a memory [Phantom said that the pain would get better but she finds that difficult to believe], and she's mostly given up on sleeping through the night with all the nightmares she has to contend with.
Abruptly, the ghost lunges toward her hiding place from above with a sharp screech, clawed hands outstretched.
Still trapped in her dark thoughts, Valerie flinches on instinct and bolts from cover before she can think about her actions, realizing too late that the ghost has tricked her. She tries to circle back. The ghost is there, blocking her every attempt to get back to shelter.
They circle, around and around. Her heart pounds, limbs shaky, mouth gone dry from fear.
With one frustrated [terrified] flicker of her ghostly tail, Valerie turns and bolts, giving up on getting back to her hiding place. Running on fear and adrenaline, she doesn't even notice reality start to shift around her.
Valerie goes tumbling, head over ghostly tail, through the gap between worlds. It all happens so fast that she doesn't even get the chance to scream in shock or even react at all.
First, she is staring around herself at the flickering, shimmering green-dark of the Infinite Realms, scanning for the enemy that she is fighting, and second, she is impacting the ground hard in the Human World, all of her breath leaving her at once. Somewhere in the distance, the other ghost screams in rage as she vanishes from sight.
The ripple in space closes behind her with the shiver of air, leaving her stranded wherever she is.
Valerie groans, still trying to process the events of the past minute, staring up at the roiling green-gray clouds swirling above her while she tries to catch her breath.
The clouds are beautiful. Still, Valerie knows that they aren't good. She definitely doesn't want to be caught out in this storm. It almost looks like there might be a tornado. She doesn't want to be out in the middle of such a severe thunderstorm. She needs to get up and find shelter so that doesn't happen.
She just... needs to make herself move first. This should be easy, she tries to tell herself.
(Moving isn't easy. Moving hurts. Moving hurts, badly. What did she do to her leg? She doesn't know but it burns, like fire in the muscles even when she sits still.)
Her entire body feels too heavy as she tries to turn over so she can push herself upright. Her side burns. Shaking, Valerie attempts once more to push herself over on trembling limbs that feel like lead weights. She is forced to give in, unable to force her muscles to respond how they are meant to.
More frustrated at this point than anything else, Valerie grumbles several choice words under her breath. The entire situation is ridiculous. If that portal hadn't decided to open right in her path, she would have defeated her temporary enemy- Valerie had never seen that ghost before in her life, and she definitely doesn't plan on running into him ever again- and then would have been well on her way home by now.
She couldn't have been that lucky. Instead, she is somewhere completely unfamiliar. She doesn't even recognize this place, wherever she is, as part of either Elmerton or Amity Park. The space here doesn't feel like her own signature or even Phantom's signature. She definitely isn't in either of those places, then, she concludes. Far more concerning, this place feels like another ghost's Haunt.
Valerie doesn't want to fight anyone. She just wants to go home. That fact won't stop another ghost from getting irritated with her for appearing in their Haunt without warning, and some might not be so forgiving as she is.
She tries to push herself upright again, then yelps as her arm gives out.
She can just stay here for a little bit longer, Valerie thinks bitterly. [It isn't like she has anywhere to be, she tells herself, sarcastic.] As though in response to that thought, the clouds somehow start to grow even darker and thunder rumbles low in the distance.
She really can't stay here for much longer. She knows that. Valerie likes thunderstorms well enough, but she definitely doesn't want to be caught out in one this bad.
The thought of being out in the storm is the last scrap of motivation that she needs. Groaning, she pushes herself to sitting. She sits there for a moment, breathing hard. Her leg hurts. Her ribs hurt. Everything hurts. Her fingers and toes feel like they're falling asleep. She doesn't want to move. She's so tired. [She has to move. The storm is coming.]
Her core seems to shudder. Valerie prods gently at the electric feeling behind her ribs. The energy flickers at the action, weak and shaking just like all of her limbs. She recognizes this feeling all too well. Sure enough, her ghost form dissipates with the crawl of blue-green lightning over her skin.
Valerie huffs. That's great timing, she thinks in frustration as she finally manages to drag herself to her feet.
Just as she has that thought, more thunder booms overhead, metallic and heavy. At the same time, the sky lights up blazing white as lightning flickers overhead.
"Oh no," Valerie mutters, already anticipating what she knows will happen next, just as the raindrops start pouring down on her.
Each raindrop sends pain through her on impact, cutting and sharp like countless knives. Within seconds, Valerie is chilled right to the bone, fingers and toes already starting to go numb from cold on top of the tingling from before.
Leg throbbing with the motion, she scans her surroundings, eyes flickering desperately toward anything that might provide some shelter from the awful storm.
With no other options left, Valerie limps forward as fast as she can.
In the distance, buildings loom. The largest of the buildings glows with warm amber light behind the curtains of rain. She has to see if someone there can help her. There's no other choice at this point, not with the storm picking up rapidly and her leg growing worse by the minute.
The branches of the trees along the path bend ominously as the wind gusts around her. The leaves gleam silver-green in her vision, flipped over from the force, as she bolts, still limping, for safety down the path that must be some sort of road.
The wind howls around her, eerie and whistling. Something crunches. She whips around, startled, then lunges to the side as the branch crashes to the ground where she had been standing moments before. She breathes out, wide-eyed, then turns and continues moving forward as fast as she can.
Scrambling over the twisted ground, she misses her footing. Screaming in shock, she hits the ground in seconds, still flailing in an attempt to keep herself upright. Her scream cuts off with a wheeze as the air gets knocked out of her for the second time that night.
In the distance, dogs start barking in alarm. Hair plastered to her face from the rain, Valerie looks up. There's a shadow moving in the light of the window and another pale shadow lurking at the edges of the dark.
Valerie freezes.
Something large and white paces through the night, coat gleaming pale in the light cast from the windows. As the shape approaches, Valerie realizes that the shadow is a large, white-coated dog. The dog steps closer, eerie silent on the largest paws that Valerie has ever seen, as the other dog bays again from somewhere in the dark.
The door opens. Amber light pours out into the night. The shadow that she saw in the window strides from the door onto the porch, and then down the steps, moving cautiously.
Valerie doesn't see what the person does, exactly, but they must have made some gesture or done something because the dog quiets, calming as he comes to stand with his side brushing against their hip.
They hold their flashlight higher, scanning the yard as they limp forward. Valerie registers now that the person is walking with a forearm crutch on one arm as they carefully pick their way across the soaked ground.
Valerie groans, her leg throbbing sharp with pain. The dog barks again, maybe at the noise and maybe at something else, but she can barely hear the sound over the crack-boom of thunder echoing overhead.
The door opens again, light shining across the damp of the porch. Someone else, shorter and younger than the person walking across the yard, looks out watchfully.
Valerie, shaking with pain and exhaustion, manages to pull herself up to sitting. The person reaches her. They stare down at Valerie, completely silent, and then hold out their hand.
Valerie accepts, feeling close to tears from relief.
She doesn't know how she manages to make her way inside. Already, she is approaching that point of exhaustion where her brain starts to skip things like she is living on fast forward. The boy standing in the doorway stares at them for a moment as they approach, his eyes wide and gleaming brown in the reflected light. Without any comment, he turns abruptly, darting back into the house on light feet, and then she must have gotten inside, somehow, because she is stepping through the doorway into cozy, humming warmth and the boy who had been standing in the doorway is bringing her a chair so she can sit down to rest her leg and another chair to rest her leg on and an ice pack to help with the pain.
"Hey," he says. He smiles quietly in her direction, gesturing as he speaks. "Welcome to Wraith Ridge. I'm Al and my sib here is Avis. I'm gonna guess you'd like to get dried off now? It was raining pretty bad out there."
"Please," she says. "I would definitely appreciate being dry if you think you can spare some towels."
Avis nods. They pull their phone from their pocket and tap on the screen for several seconds. Avis presses another button and their phone begins to play their words out loud. "You can have towels, of course! You're totally soaked!"
"Soaked and cold," Valerie agrees, shivering. The muscles along her neck and shoulders are starting to lock up from the force of keeping them wound up so taut. Her jaw aches from the tension.
Al disappears through the other doorway. Within seconds, he returns with several thick, fluffy towels. Valerie quickly begins to dry her hair, which has been plastered to her forehead from the damp. She tries to dry her clothes as best as she can, but she already feels distinctly humid and she knows that she will be sitting in damp clothing for the next few minutes until her core regains enough energy to go intangible again.
Valerie looks up, now slightly damp instead of soaked. The kitchen is warm, and she is starting to feel pleasantly warm all over, rather than frozen to the bone. Over by the sink, Al is doing something that she can't see, his back turned. Heartbeat slowing down to something approaching her usual, Valerie finally registers the soft music playing from somewhere within the house.
Heavy rain smacks against the windows. The sky lights up, blazing purple with lightning. The wind howls around them.
Allan frowns. "The storm is getting worse," he announces. "Are they on their way back yet?"
Avis taps away at their phone, as though texting someone in response to his statement. They look up, meeting Valerie's eyes for a split second. Their head tips to the side, questioning.
"Oh, by the way, I'm Valerie," she tells them, realizing that she hadn't yet introduced herself. "You can call me Val if you want, though. Thanks for helping me out."
"It's no trouble at all," Avis replies. "We are always glad to help another Revenant."
Valerie freezes. She doesn't hear that word often, but she has heard Phantom use the term before. She knows that Revenant can be another term used for half-ghost. Her silence must have been a question and an answer, all at once.
"You didn't think you were the only half-ghost here, did you?" Avis asks.
Valerie gets the impression of teeth bared in bright smiles and campfires on cold nights and lightning storms on mid-August afternoons.
She looks up, startled. Avis grins back at her, too wide, too knowing, [sharp teeth, sharp teeth, sharp teeth, just like Valerie's own] as their brown eyes flicker over to green.